2010 Indonesia Tsunami Deaths and Missing and Homeless Rising

Death Toll Rising After Tsunami Hits Indonesia

begin quote from above article "Death Toll Rising"

JAKARTA — Indonesian authorities scrambled to deal with two deadly disasters on Tuesday after a tsunami and volcanic eruptions struck in separate regions of the vast Indonesian archipelago.

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Rus Akbar/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

A rescue team loaded a ship in Padang, West Sumatra on Tuesday to prepare for the evacuation and rescue of victims of the 7.7-magnitude earthquake and resulting tsunami.

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Dwi Oblo/Reuters

Evacuees aboard a truck in Sleman, near Yogyakarta in Java, Indonesia, on Tuesday as danger of an eruption of the Mount Merapi volcano grew.

In the first, rescue workers and fishermen scoured for survivors through waters west of Sumatra Island after a powerful earthquake and resulting tsunami killed at least 113 people and left hundreds missing, including at least eight foreigners, officials said. Thousands more were homeless.
The tsunami, triggered by a 7.7-magnitude undersea quake, slammed into the remote Mentawai Islands late Monday, wreaking havoc in villages in the south of the island chain and, the authorities believe, sweeping scores out to sea. The islands are a popular destination for foreign surfers, particularly Australians.
The disaster recalled the series of tsunamis set off by a much more powerful earthquake in December 2004. Those waves killed over 230,000 people in 14 countries, but hit hardest in the northern Sumatran province of Aceh.
The surge late Monday was not as powerful, but it reached as high as 10 feet and advanced as far as 2,000 feet inland, according to officials at the Health Ministry’s crisis center.
At one surf resort, a wall of water smashed apart wooden bungalows and left one tour boat flaming on the beach, said Rini Arif, a booking agent in the nearby city of Padang, on mainland Sumatra.end quote.

Last night late I was interested in this story but it wasn't getting any play in the U.S. because of mid term election week. At the time I didn't realize just how hard the Tsunami in the new movie "Hereafter" when the French lady almost died when hit in the head and had a near death experience both physically and psychologically, had also affected my own psyche last week.

I couldn't sleep last night because of hearing about the exploding Surf Yacht burning on the beach from the wall of water and then later from the then 160 women and children missing. It hit in the night between 9 and 10 PM local time so people just weren't ready for this earthquake hit or the following Tsunami hit. They were hit completely unawares when most seismic and governmental officials in their country likely were either asleep or getting ready for bed. So there may be many more people affected because of the time of day this occurred.